This could be a major trademark filing: HTC has just applied for protection on the term “HTC Passion,” but this is no Nexus One codename that it’s looking to lockdown. Besides the fact that the application describes the goods/services as “computer hardware and software for enabling, operating, enhancing, customizing, updating and managing mobile, portable, smart, voice-over-internet-protocol, and wireless devices; user interface software,” HTC filed for the branding simultaneously in the US and throughout Europe — something it probably would not do for a handset — leading us to believe that “HTC Passion” may be the next generation of HTC Sense. What’s more, the older 2009 Sense trademark application uses nearly identical language to that of Passion in its goods and services description.

With HTC’s commitment to bringing Sense into the living room, we can see that a rebranding might be a good way to break with the phone-only connotations that the current UI enhancement brings to mind. On the other hand, Sense has only been around in its current form for a little over a year-and-a-half, and with the new features being used as a big selling point on upcoming devices like the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon, it might not make sense to evolve so quickly. Still, TouchFlo3D debuted in 2008 — the year before Sense — so maybe this actually does fit the company’s roadmap just fine.

What do you think, is this is a plausible move for HTC? Do you like the name?

Update: Reader Joachim suggests that this could in fact be a version of Sense for tablets such as the rumored HTC Scribe, and that sounds quite possible to us.